2017 SN16

2017 SN₁₆ is a member of the Apollo asteroids, which cross the orbit of Earth. Apollo's are the largest group of near-Earth objects with nearly 10 thousand known objects.

The object orbits the Sun at a distance of 0.87–1.17 AU once every 374 days (semi-major axis of 1.02 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.15 and an inclination of 13° with respect to the ecliptic.^[3] It has a minimum orbital intersection distance with Earth of 13,900,000 km (0.0928 AU), which translates into 36.2 lunar distances (LD).^[3] The body's observation arc begins with its first observation at Mount Lemmon in September 2017.^[1]

2017 SN₁₆ is currently trapped in a 3:5 mean motion resonance with Venus and follows an orbit very similar to that of 2018 RY7. They form a pair of asteroids which at some point in the past had very small relative velocities (in the order of only a few meters per second), and may represent a former binary system where the two bodies became gravitationally unbound – by a YORP-induced fission, for example – and subsequently followed separate orbits around the Sun. Other pairs may have been formed from collisional breakup of a parent body.^[2] Both 2017 SN₁₆ and 2018 RY₇ shows the highest observed level of dynamical coherence among the population of near-Earth objects.

This minor planet has neither been numbered nor named.^[1]